


The great Papyrus is on the case!

by Aeleia (LeiaLibelle)



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Humor, Post-Pacifist Route, Slice of Life, everyone is happy, nothing really happens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2015-11-04
Packaged: 2018-04-30 01:54:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5145911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeiaLibelle/pseuds/Aeleia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mysterious crime occurs in town and Papyrus is determined to solve it! The kids decide to follow him. You know, just in case he needs some help. (Just another day in the peaceful, new life of Frisk and their friends)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The great Papyrus is on the case!

**Author's Note:**

> That's my first undertale fanfic and also the first time i write anything in english?? So like, if anything sounds strange please let me know! Hope you'll like it anyway.
> 
> [Edited on 20/11/2017]

“Alright children, school is over!” Toriel said in a calm but firm voice. “Don’t forget to do your homework!”

As usual, her voice was quickly covered by the joyful screams of pupils and the rustling of chairs being moved away without much care as everyone started dashing outside of the classroom. A gentle smile covered Toriel’s face as she turned back to erase the blackboard. Frisk considered staying in the classroom to help with the cleaning—they had to wait for Toriel anyway—but the familiar voice of their friend called their name before they could make a decision.

“Yo, Frisk!” Kid sounded as enthusiastic as always, greeting them with a big smile. “Wanna hang out outside for a while?”

Frisk nodded and glanced quickly at Toriel before going, just to make sure she’d heard them and wouldn’t worry too much if she didn’t find Frisk when her work would be over. Frisk always felt like they had to keep Toriel from worrying, somehow. Even now in these peaceful times, she would always ask them where they were going or when they would be back at home, and warn them not to go too far or not to talk to strangers. Even though she should have known that Frisk of all people was perfectly able to take care of themself. That’s just how Toriel was and, to be honest, Frisk didn’t hate getting all that attention.

They followed the small yellow monster outside, grabbing their backpack with them. The sunlight was warm and there wasn’t much wind for the season. A few clouds were covering the sky and birds were singing in the branches of the giant trees surrounding the school building. Kid was beaming. To Frisk, this kind of scenery was pretty ordinary, but they could easily guess how Kid was feeling seeing all this after spending their whole life underground. Months had passed since everyone was freed but Kid never got bored of it. Every monster probably felt the same. Except, you know, the kind that melted in the sun. But most monsters were pretty happy with their new situation.

“So…” Kid started, looking like someone who was hiding some cool secret. “You know the other day when I said we should follow Papyrus on one of his missions sometime?”

Frisk nodded. It wasn’t hard to guess what Monster Kid would say next.

“Well we should totally go today! What do you think, yo?” they looked so hopeful and genuinely happy that Frisk couldn’t even think of saying no, so they just smiled and agreed to go. “Sweet! I just happen to know where he’s going to be today, so let’s go before we miss him! Oh but like, don’t let him see us, okay? We’ll be like… anime ninjas.”

They winked at Frisk and they both started discretely walking away. They both knew they didn’t really have to hide because Papyrus wouldn’t say anything but it was funnier this way. Frisk remembered that they hadn’t told Toriel they were leaving and quickly texted her, letting her know that they wouldn’t go too far away from town. The kids then followed the tiny path to the woods, muttering some “nyeh heh heh heh” on the way just like true sneaky ninjas would (or at least, that’s what Kid seemed to believe? Frisk didn’t really care anyway) and occasionally stopping to check their surroundings and make sure they weren’t being tracked.

The place where Kid knew Papyrus would be at this hour, surprisingly, happened to be his home. The small but cozy house that had been built months ago at the entrance of the woods had its windows open and a strong smell of overcooked spaghetti was flowing in the air as voices escaped from the inside. Frisk could only catch half of what was being said but it seemed like Papyrus was screaming about Sans getting the house dirty, as always. Kid and Frisk hid under the opened window and peeked over, only to meet Sans’ gaze. Fortunately, Papyrus was looking the other way. Frisk waved at Sans and the short skeleton waved back with a smile. The kids then quickly dunked to avoid being seen by Papyrus as he turned over to see what his brother was waving at.

“Sans, what are you doing?” he asked in his usual loud voice.

“Just petting the air, bro.”

“That is not a thing! You cannot pet the air!”

“Well maybe you need to be a bit more open-minded about that. Even the air has feelings, you know.”

“I’m pretty sure… it doesn’t.”

“Okay but what do you think would be worst… being an airhead, or a _bone_ head?”

“Urg! I am so done with this. It’s time for me to go on patrol anyway!”

“Take care, man.”

Frisk heard the sound of a door being opened and closed and they looked at Kid, who seemed really excited by all this. They both waited for a few seconds before going after Papyrus, making sure they were at a safe distance. The tall skeleton didn’t seem to notice anything as he walked steadily towards the town.

Papyrus’ “missions”, as he liked to call them, consisted mostly of him wandering around in town to check if everything was fine and well. Except nothing ever happened in here, so most of the time he had nothing to do at all. That didn’t seem to bother him though; if the town was safe, that could only mean he was doing a great job, after all!

Many humans used to come at first, curious about the monsters that lived here, but they somehow got used to their presence after a while. The townsmen had also accepted the monsters pretty well, although there was still some distance between the two races. Very few humans went to Toriel’s school and monsters tended to build their houses apart from the others. But overall, things were good and there weren’t many conflicts.

As they reached the first houses the monsters in the streets started greeting Papyrus, asking him how he was doing today or thanking him for his hard work. He answered them all with a slight blush on his face. The skeleton brothers had always been well loved and things were not different here in the upper world. Human kids were particularly fond of Papyrus and they waited every day for him, asking him to play with them or give them new funny puzzles to do.

“Papyrus is soooo cool!” Kid whispered after a while. “He’s like, our town’s hero! Do you think I can be like him when I grow up?”

Frisk told them they could and the smile on Kid’s face grew even wider. They started laughing, mimicking Papyrus’ “nyeh heh heh” like it was the coolest thing in the world. Papyrus kept on patrolling, unaware of the kids’ presence. Sometimes he would stop to talk to people for a while and Frisk would take that opportunity to answer Toriel’s texts.

They had reached the center of their small town with nothing out of the ordinary happening when, suddenly, they heard someone screaming nearby. Papyrus hurried over where the scream had come from, Frisk and Kid running not so far behind him, and they arrived at a small, dark alley. Two bunny monsters were here, looking concerned or upset about something.

“What happened here?” Papyrus asked.

“Oh… Hey, Papyrus,” said one of the bunnies. “Well, we were just chilling in town when…”

“That beast!” the other bunny cried. “It stole it from us, just like that!”

“A beast?” Papyrus gasped.

“Yeah, we followed it ‘til here but then it disappeared somewhere…”

They looked at each other and sighed. Papyrus seemed to be deep in thoughts.

“That is certainly a crime that should not stay unpunished!” he said at last. “But don’t worry. I, the great Papyrus, shall solve it for you!”

“Really?” the monster didn’t look very convinced.

“He said he’ll solve it!” Kid whispered excitedly, still hidden. “That’s so awesome, yo!”

“Now, tell me what the beast looked like!” Papyrus asked. “And also, what it was that it stole from you!”

“Well, it was…” the two bunnies looked at each other like they weren’t sure what to say. “White. And fast, I guess.”

“And it took our treasure!” the other monster added. “Oh, we’re probably never gonna see it again…”

“Worry not!” Papyrus interrupted. “Now that I am here, that thieving beast won’t stay hidden for long! In fact, it must be terrified already, feeling that the mighty Papyrus is on the case!”

“If you… say so. That’s nice of you to try anyway, I guess.” the first bunny shrugged, and they both went away.

Papyrus then proceeded to investigate, checking the place for clues, probably. The kids stayed behind, observing him. Monster Kid seemed very enthusiastic about the whole crime-solving thing while Frisk wondered how Papyrus could even find something with so little information about said crime. But the tall skeleton seemed to enjoy this situation a lot, so they were not going to stop him. Papyrus suddenly reached down to pick something up and then he held it in front of him to stare at the thing with a victorious expression on his face. Kid complained that they couldn’t see anything from here so they walked a little closer, hiding behind a trash container. From here, the “clue” Papyrus had found looked like a small tuft of white fur.

They kept on investigating, with Papyrus asking people around and looking for more clues, but there weren’t many results until Frisk saw something moving on the rooftops. They glanced at Papyrus but he seemed focused on interrogating a rather confused-looking slime, and Kid was way too absorbed in their conversation to listen to Frisk. They sighed and grasped a rock to throw it towards the not-so-mysterious white creature on the roof. Of course it quickly escaped, but the sound somehow managed to get Papyrus’s attention.

“Wait, you thief!” he shouted. “Let’s just talk about all this!”

He started running after the little creature, jumping over a fence to reach a pumpkin field behind a house where the thief had escaped. The two friends tried to follow but lost some time due to Kid’s lack of arms, making jumping over something a bit hard for them. When Frisk finally managed to help them they found Papyrus kicking some pumpkins away; apparently the white creature was hiding somewhere between the vegetables. They stood watching for a while until something suddenly hopped from behind a big pumpkin and disappeared into the woods. Papyrus didn’t wait a second before running after it, his legs covered with orange sticky stuff after kicking all those innocent vegetables.

“Come back here! I’ll cook you some spaghetti, okay? Wait…! Why are you not stopping? Do you prefer macaroni?”

Frisk had to stop for a while to answer a long text from Sans which consisted only of memes and links to cat videos, after what they proceeded to follow Papyrus into the woods. He was standing nearby, looking somewhat lost. Frisk and Kid hid behind a tree and waited to see what he would do, but it seemed like he was going to need a little help here. Glancing around, Frisk caught something with their eyes and whistled to make Papyrus turn over there. They grabbed a stick on the ground and, still hidden behind the tree, pointed it towards the clue they saw.

“Wait, this looks like… footprints!” Papyrus exclaimed. “Wowie! Thank you, you’re the nicest tree I’ve met so far!”

He started following the track, leading him to another part of the forest with fewer trees. Judging from what time it was, it would not be long before the sun started setting, but the weather was nice and walking in the woods at this hour felt rather pleasant. However, Papyrus was running fast and they had to accelerate a bit to catch him so it was only a matter of time before Kid eventually tripped on something. They had finally caught up on Papyrus, who had stopped and seemed to be hesitating on which way to go next, when it happened. The yellow monster fell on the ground and Papyrus instantly turned over them with a gasp. Apparently, that was it for their secret tailing. Oh, well.

“What are you doing here, you two? Wait, I know. You heard about my great investigation and came here to cheer me on, right? Geez, you really are…”

He started to blush a little while Kid got up and smiled awkwardly; they had some dust on their face.

“Well, it’s not like I, the great Papyrus, needed help to solve this mystery, but now that you’re here, I’ll make an exception and allow you to follow me and watch!”

He posed heroically and told them to wait while he was looking for more clues. Frisk grabbed Papyrus’ arm and pointed their finger towards something on the ground.

“What is it, Frisk? Don’t distract me while I’m searching for… Oh, look at that! I found something in the direction you’re conveniently pointing to!”

The thing in question appeared to be a long, white bone, the kind you could give to a friendly animal to chew and play with.

“This thing… Everything is very clear now!” Papyrus exclaimed.

“What’s clear?” Kid asked.

“Our culprit… is a fan of me! That’s why they have a bone!”

“Wow! Papyrus, you’re so clever, yo!”

“I know! But let’s move on. I have the feeling that we’re getting close! Nyeh heh heh!”

“Nyeh heh heh heh heh!” Kid mimicked with a happy grin on their face.

They only had to walk a little further to find their next clue: a bunch of little white fur balls and grass that had been flattened. It looked like some kind of small creature had playfully rolled on the grass and lost some of its fur doing so.

“Looks like our beast is losing its hairs out of fear of the great Papyrus” was the only comment the skeleton made, waving his head with a satisfied look.

Frisk ignored twenty posts from Alphys concerning some new popular but—according to her—not-so-good anime and looked at the sky. The sun was setting and tones of pink and orange were melting together. The air was starting to be a bit colder, too. Soon, the group came across the last clue: a tiny puddle of transparent liquid on the floor. Perhaps some kind of animal had been drooling here…?

Papyrus didn’t have time to make any comments on this because right after they saw the puddle, they heard a weird noise from behind the trees in front of them.

“Finally, the time to reveal the culprit’s identity has come!” Papyrus said with a triumphant smile. “Show yourself, thief!”

The noise stopped and for some time nothing happened, but Papyrus waited patiently.

“Yo, Frisk…” Kid whispered. “Have you figured the culprit’s identity yet? I think I might have an idea, but I could be wrong… I’m sure Papyrus knows, though. He’s awesome.”

Frisk took their chin in their hand, thinking. But there wasn’t really anything to think about, right? Because it was pretty obvious who or rather what the culprit was.

A white and fluffy silhouette appeared from behind the tree, and Papyrus gasped loudly.

“It’s…! It’s a… a beast with white fur that somehow looks like an annoying dog?”

There was a silence but then an answer came from the culprit.

“Uh. No. I’m sorry… It’s only me…”

Suddenly a face appeared from behind the fur, tears in their ghostly eyes.

“I’m sorry… I think you were expecting something else but it was just me… You must be disappointed, oh, I should have said something…”

“Na… Napstablook?” Papyrus shouted. “I mean, of course! I knew it was you from the beginning!”

“Oh… really? That’s good to hear…”

“Yoooo!” Kid exclaimed. “Man, I was so sure it would be a dog! I guess I still have many things to learn before I become as smart as you, Papyrus!”

The tall skeleton looked very proud and blushed a little at the compliment.

“But then, what about all the fur we found?” Kid asked.

“It’s… It’s because of that thing…” Napstablook explained, holding a white fur coat in their tiny ghost hands. “That thing the bunnies had…”

“Wait, so that’s the treasure that what stolen?” Kid looked genuinely surprised. “Why would you take that thing?”

“Oh… That… Actually, I was wandering in town, but… I didn’t pay attention, and I bumped into someone… I was surprised and I panicked so I flew away but… I didn’t realize I accidentally took that coat with me… And then I didn’t know how to return it to them, so I just watched from the roofs waiting for an opportunity to return it, but then you saw me… I didn’t know what to do, so I ran away… I’m so sorry… I caused so much trouble to everyone…”

Monster Kid still seemed confused about this. “But… then what about the clues we found? I understand for the fur, but what about the grass that was flattened? Do you got something, Papyrus?”

“W- Well… Of course! But I’ll let Napstablook explain!”

“I…” the little ghost seemed unsure of what to say. “I couldn’t see anything because the coat was covering my eyes, so I bumped into a tree and fell on the ground, and I didn’t feel like getting up, so I lied there for a while…”

“That… makes sense,” Kid said. “And the puddle of drool we found?”

“I felt really bad about running away, so I stopped to cry here until you caught me…”

“Okay, but what about the bone! How do you explain that?”

“Oh… about that… Actually, I… I think I saw Papyrus drop it there while he was looking for me… I wanted to say something but I was scared… Sorry.”

“Well,” Papyrus interrupted, “that’s one hell of a mystery that I just solved!”

“Yeah, I… I’m sorry for the trouble. I’ll go return the coat now.”

Frisk, who had been quietly listening the whole time wondering why a couple a furry animals would need a coat made of fur in the first place, heard their phone ring in their pocket. It was a text from Toriel telling them she had backed a pie for them. Frisk answered that they would be here in no time. It would be dark soon anyway. It was time to go home.

 

“Today was so cool!” Kid said on their way back. Papyrus had left with Napstablook to help them return the accidentally stolen item and the two friends were heading back to town. “I’m so glad we followed Papyrus!”

Frisk agreed. Although the development had been kind of uninteresting and the mystery not really mysterious after all, their little adventure sure had been fun.

“I really want to be as cool as him someday!”

Frisk smiled, remembering that one time Kid stood between Undyne and them. To them, Kid was already very cool, and also a precious friend. Just as everyone in town. Climbing Mount Ebott had been the best decision Frisk had ever made, they were sure of it.

As they got close to the town, night was falling and the sun had almost completely disappeared from the sky. Lights were being lit in the town and stars had started to appear in the clouded sky.

“Well, I guess you should get home!” Kid said. “See ya tomorrow at school, Frisk!”

Frisk told them goodbye as Kid started running towards their own house. Nearby, Frisk could already see Toriel waving at them and they smiled. Today had been a very good day.


End file.
